Cardoso slams ‘kicking’ Kaizer Chiefs after costly stalemate 

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso expressed his fury with the match officials after players were hospitalised during his team’s 1-1 draw against Kaizer Chiefs.

The result meant the Brazilians missed an opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the Betway Premiership to five points, dropping crucial points at Loftus Versfeld.

Sundowns were forced into an early substitution after Keanu Cupido was injured following a reckless challenge from Siphesihle Ndlovu, who was only shown a yellow card for the incident.

Sundowns coach fumes at physical Chiefs

With Chiefs’ Mduduzi Shabalala also leaving the field with a shoulder injury, Cardoso made an impassioned plea for referees to take stronger control of matches to protect players.

“It’s quite difficult to comment… but I need to take a better look on TV,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV as quoted by Soccer Laduma. “What is clear is that… let’s just think about what happened in the Pirates match against Chiefs to again have two broken shoulders.”

The coach criticised the overly physical nature of the game, which he felt the referee failed to manage from the start.

Cardoso hits out referee over ‘kicking’ game

“It was a fight that the referee has an obligation to control. This is not the football we want, for sure, to be played or officiated,” he stated. “The first 20 minutes were just a fight—kicking, looking for the players, man-on-man, and just kicking. This is the second match like this.”

Cardoso concluded with a direct call for officials to be more prepared and assertive to prevent serious injuries.

“Referees need to prepare themselves, do their homework so that they know what they are coming for and can control the game,” the coach fumed. “Because now we have players in the hospital—shoulders broken, arms broken. Come on, who will control this? Control the match in a proper way!”